The ideology of Eurasianism originated in Russia around the beginning of the twenties. On the one hand, the creators of the theory were not distinguished by a fierce intolerance towards communist politics, but they also did not experience a special commitment to the Bolsheviks, condemning accepted practice. The doctrine developed in those years was aimed at explaining the very fact of the existence of the Soviet country, so unusual, alien to the other planet, both in terms of economy and social structure. Politicians, philosophers, ideologists of those times set themselves the task of determining the place of power on the planet and the formation of the path that must be followed.
Overall picture
The period when the foundations of Eurasianism were laid, was distinguished by pronounced instability of the entire planet. The bourgeoisie reigned in the western countries, in the eastern there were still colonies. The thinkers of that time came to the conclusion that all powers are literally doomed. On the basis of such an idea, it was decided that it was the Soviet Union that would bring to our civilization those new trends that would help to renew the entire civilization. The basic ideas that were supposed to improve life on the whole planet were not socialist, communist, atheistic, revolutionary, at the same time they were formed by the reality that surrounded the leaders of the twenties of the last century - Soviet life with all its characteristic features.
Eurasianism of Russia is at the same time a historical concept, a philosophical movement, and a political doctrine. Its roots lie in Slavophilism, the ideas of Westernism had a strong influence. It must be said that for the first time the theses, then embodied in this theory, were announced long before the formation of the Soviets: as early as the beginning of the nineteenth century, Karamzin wrote in his works that there should be an elevation of the country located between the west and east, combining the features of all neighbors. The role played by the work of Danilevsky, more than once expressed hostility to the Slavs of the European powers. It is believed that in many respects the development of Eurasianism was predetermined by the postulates of Leontyev, who worked on the theory of Byzantism. However, the closest source is Lamansky, whose ideas actually represent Eurasianism in the highest form, devoid of the external influence of revolutionary troubles and the power of the Soviets.
Why and why?
The essence of Eurasianism is not only the restoration of the “laid down” Russia by right of position, but also a new interpretation of historical facts, a rethinking of what has already happened in the history of our civilization. Ardent supporters of this idea called to consider our power not at all an element of Europe and not even a new civilization, developing in the footsteps of the Romano-Germanic. The idea was to search for the sources in the Golden Horde, Byzantium and other Eastern powers that influenced the formation of our culture. In a word, everything Slavic-European has some oriental principles that you just need to see. In this logic, Russia by default cannot be reckoned with Europe, therefore it is impossible and even ridiculous to draw parallels between the development of our country and, say, France.
Interest is getting stronger
The founders of Eurasianism were able to draw attention to their ideas the best minds of the emigrant elite. Surprisingly, it took them a record short time. Already in 1921, it was possible to publish the first book devoted to the ideas of this teaching. Officially, the founder of the current was recognized Savitsky - a geographer, an outstanding politician, thinker. Under the wing, ideas united Trubetskoy, Karsavin, Frank, Bitsilli. Community forces published periodicals under the name "Eurasian Chronicle", and also released several collections.
Nowadays, it is customary to talk about the early currents - this is the very beginning of the twenties, and a later wave of interest: the public returned to the theory of Eurasianism in 1927. At first there was a Sofia stage, but the later version was distinguished by the presence of two directions at once: right and left. However, thinkers of the initial stage showed maximum activity, and by the middle of the decade, the movement began to gradually decompose. This was evident both in the variability of concepts and in the organizational confusion. The postulates of Florovsky, one of the founders of the theory, which over time fundamentally revised his views and challenged his own statements made earlier, played a role in many respects. This could not but affect the whole direction as a whole. At that moment, for the first time, designs of ideas were called reckless, without confirmation, based more on emotions. Florovsky completely left the movement already in 1922. Trubetskoy adhered to the ideas of the current a little longer: according to him, the direction completely exhausted itself in 1925, after which the leader left his post and Karsavin took his post.
Development of events
The second stage of the political doctrine of Eurasianism began after 1925. It was the ideas of politics that became self-sufficient, under the influence of this, the doctrine as a whole substantially changed, turned into an ideology. No matter how contradictory the promoted ideas may seem, the center moved to Paris. It was here that the newspaper of the same name began to be published. The first issue was made in 1928. According to many, a clear Bolshevik influence was traced in the texts.
The main idea of the newspaper, as modern analysts say, was to establish good neighborly relations with the Soviets. It would seem that using such an instrument, it is possible to let other nations and powers understand what a new country is on the world map. The publication provided theoretical justifications for Bolshevik power. As many say, it was at that moment that political Eurasianism died completely. Ideology decayed and was doomed to soon oblivion. In 1929, Karsavin, Trubetskoy completely retired and broke all ties with the remnants of the movement.
Program Postulates
These were mainly formulated by Trubetskoy, who very responsibly approached the creation, a clear outline of the ideas of Eurasianism. Main elements:
- creation of a unique cultural concept;
- criticism of western culture;
- substantiation of idealism, based on the postulates of Orthodoxy;
- comprehension of geoethnics of Russia;
- approval of the uniqueness of the development of Eurasia;
- ideocracy of the state.
Cultural concept
This idea of Eurasianism is based on philosophical, historiosophical bases. Our contemporaries describe the theory as a whole as organic, that is, a full-fledged philosophical direction. It follows from the postulates of the sophist period that the key mistake of thinkers of the Western European powers was a preference in favor of individualism. Moreover, in Europe, as, in particular, Karsavin argued, there is no spirit of community at all. The philosophy of the Western powers revolves around an individual, unique "I", ignoring the supra-individual spirit, the soul of the people, of the country.
Western thinking, as follows from the concept of Eurasianism, recognizes power as a cluster of individuals, and in the same way evaluates the family and any other formations in society. Eurasianism admits such an interpretation of social groups as a mistake, it contradicts the idea radically. Both the people and other clusters formed on the basis of social and cultural factors are full-fledged organisms. In the ideology of Eurasianism, these are commonly called super-individual.
So with us, and this way they have
Formulating the concept of Eurasianism, Karsavin builds a lot on opposing the theses accepted by European thinkers. By and large, the Russian philosopher, in principle, denies the existence of an individual "I". The reality, the reality that surrounds us, as follows from the theories of Karsavin, simply can not take the form of an individual personality, consciousness. A similar idea, adhered to by individualists, is fundamentally erroneous. A personality exists exclusively socially, and an individual is one of its phenomena and nothing more.
At the same time, modern Eurasianism does not deny that the existence of a social personality requires the presence of individual individuals, while this object is a will, consciousness, actualized through individuals. In fact, a social person does not have a degree of presence in reality, like individual representatives of our society. But in Russian philosophy of the twenties this moment turned out to be out of the attention of thinkers.
About social personalities
Eurasianism in philosophy is an idea that presupposes highlighting socialities whenever a group of people arises based on some factor: work, exchange. In this case, it is customary to talk about brief socialism. In addition to it, there are also durable. They include humanity as a whole, individual countries, nationalities.
Proving his postulates, Karsavin appeals to the following facts: the same logical principles of thinking are characteristic of people. Therefore, we can talk about the absolute, enduring meaning of logic, which is expressed in each individual person. This, in turn, allows us to assume that humanity itself thinks in this way, it is simply expression that occurs through individualized forms - of individual people. This is precisely Eurasianism in philosophy during the period of its active growth and development.
Great and numerous
One of the main terms of Eurasianism is a symphonic personality. It involves the diversity of a single organic whole. An alternative concept is the unity of the multitude. In any case, for such a term the interpretation assumes that there is a multitude, unity, and they simply cannot exist without each other. According to those who adhere to Eurasianism, the individual is a fiction, a fiction, at least in that understanding, which is generally accepted in philosophical movements.
A person in the understanding of Eurasianism is an object that can somewhat specifically express a super-individual will. At the same time, he has consciousness, but it is also an element of the superindividual and simply expressed through its capabilities and qualities. But a rational European approach, in which individuality is recognized as separability from others and isolation in oneself, is completely unacceptable and incorrect, false statement for Eurasianism.
That is, we do not have an individual personality?
In fact, Eurasianism is not a theory that completely deprives a person of his personality and individuality, as it might seem at first glance. The postulate should be interpreted as follows: a personality is established only when it is related to society (class, people). Every social education is a combined symphonic personality, which is included in a complex hierarchical structure. The higher the level of assembly, the higher the position in the hierarchy.
Combined individuals are closely related to each other, and this process is due to the characteristics of culture - an instrument of objectification. At the same time, the cultural process is only possible if there is a genetic connection with the generations that lived earlier, as well as within the existing ones. When a culture begins to be seen as such a complex formation, it becomes obvious that there are different periods and stages of development within a closed cultural cycle. They are isolated from a constant series of evolution.
Orthodoxy and philosophy of the twenties
Eurasianism is a theory born in the Soviet Union, but which considered the Orthodox Church as a perfect cultural process of formation. It was believed that such a religion is the core of the power’s culture, a goal and a base that largely declares the very essence of the culture of the people as a phenomenon. Orthodoxy is essentially a collective concept, a church that patronizes the world and unites all under its wing with love, faith. Accordingly, faith becomes thereby what is laid in the foundation of a symphonic personality culture.
The thinkers adhering to Eurasianism believed that the formation of a national culture is possible only if there are religious prerequisites. For our particular base, Orthodoxy. Eurasianism required to improve the religion and themselves, in order to unite in the divine kingdom. Due to the capabilities of Orthodoxy, it was possible to synthesize several trends with an excellent ideology - and not all of them are included in the framework of a single culture, but also stay outside its borders. Paganism, according to those adhering to Eurasianism, is also potentially an Orthodox religion, since the pagans of Central Asia, Russia, adopting the experience of other countries, created a unique movement, an optimal form of belief, very different from that adopted in Europe and related to those living in our country. The Eurasians were firmly convinced that the Orthodoxy of our country is in many ways close to the religions of the East and has much more in common with them than with European beliefs.
Not everything is so obvious
Berdyaev in his sayings pointed out (and more than reasonably) the obvious contradiction that attracted the attention of the idea of Eurasianism: Orthodoxy, as the followers of philosophy firmly asserted, was the center of the Russian, and at the same time, of the whole Eurasian culture. And, as you know, it includes not only Orthodoxy, but also Buddhism, Islam, paganism and other areas.
It is an empirical fact, it was simply impossible to deny it, so the followers of Eurasianism called Orthodoxy the only genuine religious branch of a universal scale, infallible, true. Everything that went beyond, in their opinion, was paganism, schism, heresy. At the same time, attention was drawn to the fact that the adopted religion does not turn away from the Gentiles, although it seeks to establish our world as an Orthodox one in essence.
One of the serious problems, as the followers of Eurasianism claimed, was the abundance of the so-called Christian heresy, that is, people who are quite consciously striving for a split. This is both latinism and enlightenment. Eurasianism also ranked communism, liberalism.
History of Russia and Eurasianism
The main idea of the doctrine under consideration was to represent our power as a middle continent, equal to Asia, Europe in its significance and being part of the Old World. Such a statement required to understand Russia as a very special country, occupying a unique position in the history of civilization, which means that the state was called upon to play its role for the whole world.
The exclusivity of Russia was not new by the time adherents of Eurasianism entered the scene. The Slavophiles of the nineteenth century also actively promoted such allegations. However, the Eurasians, although they did not dispute the justice of all, without exception, the claims of their predecessors, still conflicted with many. For the followers of Eurasianism, it was important to separate from the Slavophiles, and for this, attention was primarily focused on the following statement: Russians are not only Slavs, it is unacceptable to restrict nationality in this way.
Slavism and Eurasianism
Savitsky, one of the main authors of the theses related to the national definition, drew attention to the fact that Slavism is too weak, insufficiently indicative term, therefore it simply does not allow to realize the whole peculiarity of Russia's cultural wealth. Czechs, Poles - this is Western culture, for which Russia is also Byzantism. At the same time, Russia is the European elements, Asian, Asian.
It cannot be denied that in many ways modern nationality was formed under the influence of Finno-Ugric tribes, Turks, who lived for a long time near the eastern Slavs. The presence of components due to such a neighborhood is one of the strongest features of the Russian culture that has developed at the moment. The national substrate of the state is formed by the totality of nationalities living within the borders of the country. The Eurasian nation, as noted by adherents of Eurasianism, is united by both a place of development and self-knowledge. Such postulates made it possible to successfully isolate themselves from Westerners, Slavophiles, giving their teachings individuality and uniqueness.